A study on the level of political cynicism and level of political efficacy of the people of Pavia, Iloilo

Abstract

Since political cynicism and political efficacy are essential elements in the working of a political system, we must acknowledge the necessity of investigating the elements, mode and extent of their development, and the nature of their relationship. This study hopes to unravel the relationship between political cynicism and political efficacy. It also seeks to analyse the bearing of some variables on the level of political cynicism and political efficacy. Given these objectives, a survey was conducted in Pavia, Iloilo with a total of 150 respondents. The Political Cynicism Scale (PCS), developed by a graduate seminar on Political Socialization at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology in 1961, was adopted as the principal measure to determine the level of political cynicism of the respondents. On the other hand, the Political Efficacy Scale (PES), which was developed by Campbell and modified by Jurado, was utilized to gauge the level of political efficacy of the respondents. There are two views prevailing regarding the relationship between political cynicism and political efficacy. One view holds that a sense of political cynicism goes hand in hand with a politically efficacious feeling, while the alternative view maintains that a person who is politically cynical tend to be politically inefficacious. There have also been assumptions that there are individuals who do not feel politically cynical but are politically efficacious. The findings of this study reveal that majority of the people of Pavia, Iloilo are high in political cynicism. It has also been found out that majority of the Pavian- hons do not feel politically efficacious. Moreover, although the respondents are widely distributed in the different relationship categories, the high cynicism-low efficacy category registers a relatively higher frequency distribution. Finally, the study reveals that only age and occupation among the various socio-economic variables are significantly related with political cynicism. It has been found out that as one grows older, his sense of political cynicism decreases. As regards occupation, blue-collar workers tend to be more politically cynical than white collar workers. None of the variables are found to have a relation with with political efficacy.